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Obama: White House dinner with GOP senators 'constructive'

President Obama "enjoyed a constructive and wide-ranging discussion" over dinner with Republican senators on Wednesday night, White House officials said.

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During the dinner, which lasted two-and-half-hours, Obama and the senators discussed deficit reduction and immigration reform, as well as a gun control measure that the Senate will take up in the coming days.

Rubio, a frontrunner for the 2016 GOP nomination, had been invited but had not committed for most of the day of the dinner. The Florida Republican's office said immigration meetings might get in the way of him going to the dinner, but later said he would attend.

Obama's first meeting with Senate Republicans, last month, did not result in any new policy breakthroughs but senators left the meeting feeling more optimistic about possibly brooking a deal on deficit reduction.

Additionally, the two dinners have included all but three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee: Cornyn, Grassley and Portman. The Finance panel oversees Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and taxes.

--Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.

--This report was originally published at 6:19 p.m. and updated at 10:55 p.m.